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Aaron Swartz & A Culture of Denial: Depression & Suicide in Tech

psychcentral.com

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Re: Aaron Swartz & A Culture of Denial: Depression & Suicide in Tech

#11

Post by Buzaga »

jordanb wrote: post #4
flipcoder wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People would rather blame something with a face (blaming the suicide on his lawyer, blaming videogame developers or the NRA for mass shootings, etc.) before admitting that the answer may lie in some science book that was too boring or dull for them to pick up and read. I'm glad this article actually addresses the problem directly: mental illness

Yes. Completely agree. As another example, take Mohamed Bouazizi. He was clearly a very sick man, to light himself on fire like he did. But the sensationalist press decided to focus---not on his mental illness, which was the only thing to blame for his death---but instead on scapegoating the Tunisian government who rightfully confiscated a few pieces of his property. EDIT: I'm afraid people aren't understanding the t…

There doesn't seem to be a lot of content linking Mohamed Bouazizi to mental illnesses... are you affirming that he was clearly very sick because he lit himself on fire?

Isn't this cultural bias? In this light, Quanc Duc(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thich_Quang_Duc), the monk of the famous "lit myself on fire in protest" picture must had to be a clinical mental anything, too, no?

Re: Aaron Swartz & A Culture of Denial: Depression & Suicide in Tech

#12

Post by BrokenPipe »

intended wrote: post #10

There are 3 battles which are being fought here, and they should ideally be separated out during discussions. The trial affected a brilliant person who pushed limits of the world around him, to his limits. At the same time there are thousands of convicts who have committed far more heinous crimes, and others who are being prosecuted harshly for crimes they didn't commit who don't follow this path. Aaron died not beca…

>Aaron died not because of the trial but because of depression

Aaron died because he decided suicide was the best course of action. Given that the trial was what ultimately and unjustly squashed him, I would say he did die because of the harsh and unjust trial.

Depression is not a cause, is a consequence.

Re: Aaron Swartz & A Culture of Denial: Depression & Suicide in Tech

#13

Post by maked00 »

Public efforts regarding Mental Health have been almost completely obliterated by the 1% in their greedy rush to take everything. MH is at the heart of this sick young man's tradgedy and the ever more frequent serial killings.

I don't buy all the victim scenarios for this fellow. He was smart, he knew what he was getting into. He knew attacking the established status quo would have dire consequences. He had plenty of opportunities to change his path to a less risky one. He knew going into this that to challenge these people would bring concrete and powerful counter attacks aimed at him.

What he did not know was how to cope with depression, how and were to get help, and was too ingrained with the imposed taboos to seek help.

Re: Aaron Swartz & A Culture of Denial: Depression & Suicide in Tech

#14

Post by Deestan »

BrokenPipe wrote: post #12
intended wrote: post #10

There are 3 battles which are being fought here, and they should ideally be separated out during discussions. The trial affected a brilliant person who pushed limits of the world around him, to his limits. At the same time there are thousands of convicts who have committed far more heinous crimes, and others who are being prosecuted harshly for crimes they didn't commit who don't follow this path. Aaron died not beca…

>Aaron died not because of the trial but because of depression Aaron died because he decided suicide was the best course of action. Given that the trial was what ultimately and unjustly squashed him, I would say he did die because of the harsh and unjust trial. Depression is not a cause, is a consequence.

> Aaron died because he decided suicide was the best course of action.

People suffering from depression are not rational.

I don't mean that "I can't make sense of this decision therefore they aren't rational", but people having recovered from depression consider their own thought processes from the depression to be flat out wrong.

Re: Aaron Swartz & A Culture of Denial: Depression & Suicide in Tech

#15

Post by juliano_q »

I think this article is very important because it differs from many others that supposes that the prosecution caused the suicide.

I, like many others, am pissed with the overreach of the prosecution and think that the legal system must change. Aaron never deserved 6 months on jail.

That said, it was obvious that Aaron would face the possibility to go to jail many times in his career after he choose to be an internet activist. If you choose this path, it is something you have to be prepared to deal with. A person with severe depression choosing a career like this is an obvious candidate for suicide.

Ortiz, Heymann and MIT are guilty for overreaching and made a bad decision with this prosecution. But they are not murderers. Aaron choose this path. He choose to risk his life to try to change something on the world. He was bold and he will always be remembered.

Re: Aaron Swartz & A Culture of Denial: Depression & Suicide in Tech

#16

Post by BrokenPipe »

Deestan wrote: post #14
BrokenPipe wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Aaron died not because of the trial but because of depression Aaron died because he decided suicide was the best course of action. Given that the trial was what ultimately and unjustly squashed him, I would say he did die because of the harsh and unjust trial. Depression is not a cause, is a consequence.

> Aaron died because he decided suicide was the best course of action. People suffering from depression are not rational. I don't mean that "I can't make sense of this decision therefore they aren't rational", but people having recovered from depression consider their own thought processes from the depression to be flat out wrong .

In my view there is depression and depression. Some people have good reasons to be depressed and those can be very rational reasons.

Re: Aaron Swartz & A Culture of Denial: Depression & Suicide in Tech

#17

Post by jcfrei »

this is the first article that puts aarons decision into perspective. while there are certainly broken laws in the us prosecution system, I never bought that the prosecutors were responsible for this tragedy. the tech community is in uproar about the unfairness of the trial against aaron but more fundamental issues in our society have caused this tragedy: the stigma of depression and other mental illnesses and the high amount of stress to which we're exposed in the 21st century.

Re: Aaron Swartz & A Culture of Denial: Depression & Suicide in Tech

#18

Post by jcfrei »

BrokenPipe wrote: post #12
intended wrote: post #10

There are 3 battles which are being fought here, and they should ideally be separated out during discussions. The trial affected a brilliant person who pushed limits of the world around him, to his limits. At the same time there are thousands of convicts who have committed far more heinous crimes, and others who are being prosecuted harshly for crimes they didn't commit who don't follow this path. Aaron died not beca…

>Aaron died not because of the trial but because of depression Aaron died because he decided suicide was the best course of action. Given that the trial was what ultimately and unjustly squashed him, I would say he did die because of the harsh and unjust trial. Depression is not a cause, is a consequence.

that's complete and utter bullshit. you're missing the exact point the article was trying to make.

Re: Aaron Swartz & A Culture of Denial: Depression & Suicide in Tech

#19

Post by BrokenPipe »

jcfrei wrote: post #18
BrokenPipe wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Aaron died not because of the trial but because of depression Aaron died because he decided suicide was the best course of action. Given that the trial was what ultimately and unjustly squashed him, I would say he did die because of the harsh and unjust trial. Depression is not a cause, is a consequence.

that's complete and utter bullshit. you're missing the exact point the article was trying to make.

It is not. There are more types of depression than you think. Do you want me to list them or you can use a search engine?

Re: Aaron Swartz & A Culture of Denial: Depression & Suicide in Tech

#20

Post by RyanMcGreal »

My reading of the various articles since Aaron's death has not been that people are blaming the prosecution for causing it, but rather noting:

a) it was almost certainly a contributing factor; and

b) regardless of its contribution to Aaron's death, it is ethically and legally appalling in itself to subject someone to the threat of a felony conviction and decades in prison for what amounts to a TOS violation - downloading large numbers of articles over an open network.

I appreciate the perspective this article brings to the real cultural challenges around recognizing, acknowledging and addressing depression, but there is no need for dismissive strawman attacks against those who have chosen to focus some of their outrage on the despicable actions of the US prosecutor in this matter.

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